Korach and his fellow rebels wer e miraculously punished for their sinful rebellion against Moshe: “And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men … more

Our parasha, Naso, concludes with the following pasuk: “When Moshe came into the Ohel Moed to speak with Him (l’dabare eto) he would hear the Voice (HaKol) speaking to him from … more

At the very beginning of his instructions about the construction of the Mishkan, Moshe says to the people regarding their terumah (donations), “Take from yourselves terumah to G-d, all those … more

His eyes haunt me; looking out as they do from a picture taken over seventy years ago. Just one drop of one story from amongst a sea of pain. more

Friday night. The sun had long since set, dark clouds hid the stars, and the wind was howling off the Shouf mountain range in central Lebanon. I had managed to quietly sing the Kabbalat Shabbat service while en-route to the ambush site, and even pray the evening service while in the staging ground, before giving my men a final inspection, but I had no idea what to do about Kiddush. more

Please forgive my sharing with you a letter I wrote to myself. It was important to write it, following the lesson of the Chasam Sofer (see below), so that the message would come across and not go right out the other ear. Dear Me, In the seventh chapter of the Laws of Teshuvah (Repentance), Maimonides reminds us that even not-so-obvious “sins” require a repentance of some kind. more

Yosef is sworn to bury Yaakov in the land of Canaan at the very beginning of the Torah portion (47:29-30). After he blesses his sons and gives them his final messages, Yaakov instructs all of his … more

The tragic story of a fire in Brooklyn coming on the ten year anniversary of a similar story in Teaneck has left the greater Jewish community reeling. We mourn with these families, and wish for a … more

Is it possible to be truly impartial in life? Consider this story from Rabbi Abraham Twerski, told to him as a boy by his father (published in Rabbi Twerski’s “Generation to … more

It seems almost trivial, but one of the difficulties of my time in Lebanon was the lack of space, a sense of being on top of one another.  During a scramble to get into the bunker when the … more